


What am I?

by sylph_feather



Series: Monsters and Men [5]
Category: Heathers (1988), Heathers: The Musical - Murphy & O'Keefe
Genre: Gen, THIS SERIES HAS CONSUMED MY LIFE PLEASE READ THIS, alternate universe — fantasy, alternate universe — monster, alternate universe — urban fantasy, changeling!veronica, mainly this was just an excuse to give long descriptions of what v looks like but shhh it’s fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-04-04 20:30:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14028153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sylph_feather/pseuds/sylph_feather
Summary: Veronica starts questioning exactly what she is, and not in the philosophical sense.





	What am I?

**Author's Note:**

> This was a big excuse to write about lore and the way Veronica looks, haha! As always you only really need to read the very first installment of the series to get what is happenin’

  
It’s at eleven years old that Veronica begins to wonder exactly what she is.  
Oh yes, it’s obvious she’s a changeling. All children have heard tales of changelings at some point or another; myths that if you’re a bad child they’ll come and replace you, and later in school to come and report any “suspicious children” with “strange attributes.” Nobody said precisely what happened with the children when reported and found guilty of ~~existing~~ being magical.  
Through the library she found that there were two categories of changelings.  
The first category was an older fae replacing a person of any age that the fae were interested in for one reason or another. Often they did this as a sort of boon. A human life meant naught to a fae.  
This sort of changeling often could not turn into its natural state (though it was variable). In this case the changeling status worked something like a curse, though often it was accompanied with some sort of deal that ended with a benefit in the end. The curse was the price to go through for that benefit. The contract lasted until false body died, or the original person would lose their luster and be returned to the human world. The people were seen as nothing but interesting trophies or toys, or in some generous cases, pets.  
These changelings were the more widely known ones and were highly looked down upon for being infiltrators of human society. Under many cases, killing them could even bring back the original child, as their existences were tied together.  
Veronica was pretty sure that if she were some sort of fae bent on paying forward a favor large enough that it required replacing a person she would certainly remember it.  
The second lesser known sort of changeling was one that replaced a child at both the changeling’s and the child’s birth. This was often not because the child was a particularly interesting child that the fae desired to take in and make it Other by teaching it the way of magic, but rather because the fairy child was in some way undesirable.  
Fae and even magic itself looked down upon the killing of children, and by doing so one could land up in the midst of a very powerful curse. However, failing to get rid of a shameful child— halfbreeds, runts, malformed children, and the like— a fae could end up ostracized and the child would stain the family name. Fae are big on tradition.  
Placing complex enchantments on the fairy-child and placing it in the crib of a human was a loophole, and as an added bonus they got a trophy human out of the bargain.  
That sounded about right.  
Why would her biological parents want to get rid of her, though? What even were her parents?

—

After a long while of searching the library, Veronica had given up on deliberating over what sort of creature she was— “blue scales” was too broad a category, and eleven year olds are not exactly known for their attention spans.  
Of the creatures she had seen in her extensive research, she was personally hoping for perhaps a graceful Kirin. Maybe it wasn’t a Pegasus or Unicorn, but perhaps it would be close enough to her favorite horses to impress Martha?

—

Martha wouldn’t tell, right? She doesn’t want to be one of the changelings that disappears because of parents gone mad trying to get their original child back.  
Veronica becomes a rather terrifying dragon, and decides it’s better to leave her to horses and keep this to herself.

—

She doesn’t become fascinated with the exact sort of dragon she is until years later, at fifteen.  
Though she doesn’t know all dragon species, one like her has not been mentioned in her listenings. And she listened quite intently, and was quite smart overall— surely she would’ve figured it out?  
At this point, she is as nearly as large as a horse, with a developing ruff of feathers filling out her neck. They are silky and shimmer shades of blue as they move. Her scales are that of a deep blue and each is ringed by a silver crescent. Her head and tail are tipped with spiked frills, shifting like ears. Veronica’s body and legs are slim and long, her wings skinny yet immense like a tern, meant for gliding and maneuverability. Her toes are long and webbed, with deadly claws, and teeth with several blade like serrations on them line her mouth, deadly sharp.  
Veronica catches all this in quick glances in the mirror; if she squints hard enough, it’s her other form that shows, and magnificent it is. She hasn’t shifted since twelve, too terrified to be discovered and rejected. If she feels uncomfortable in her own place in the world, that is still much better than feeling the burning iron upon her wrists inside a prison that she visits in her nightmares.  
She finds a secluded alcove and begins to study the many sorts of drakes.

—

In the end, she narrows it down to only two dragons.  
Very few dragons have feathers, so the first was easy to narrow down. Lunar Drakes possess nearly the exact body shape as she, yet are entirely coated with feathers, only have colorations of black or purple lined with silver, have separated talons, and their heads and tails are smoothed.  
The only dragon to possess the blue coloration, webbed feet, serrated teeth, and frills are Sea Dragons, but they look nothing like her in terms of body shape. They are thick set, and their tails and legs are far broader than her whip thin tail and slender limbs. Their wings are also like parachutes, meant to keep them afloat with much effort, as they are clearly sea fading creatures. She is more seal and they whale.  
It is only through intense scrutiny of worn books that Veronica learns of half breed dragons, practically unknown because of their purging from existence— many dragons were keen to take the risk of curses and crush their eggs, and do their best to keep the shame under wraps.  
She can only assume that she’s a half breed of the pair, and possibly a runt to boot— dragons of either species at her age are at least supposed to be the size of an elephant.  
_Just be thankful they didn’t kill you,_ Veronica reassures herself, feeling a bit sickened.  
—

Knowing this doesn’t reassure Veronica. She just wants to divulge all this information to someone, but nobody can know anything.  
Veronica just feels more out of place in her skin as a result.

—

Eventually, when everything inevitably blows open, she finds herself willingly sharing her findings to her friends as the nestle against her silk feathers.

**Author's Note:**

> Yell at me at sylph-bird-63 on tumblr, and maybe drop a prompt for this series if you have one~  
> This is probably my least fav of the series so far.  
> Also if you want a visual for Ronnie’s teeth go on and look at crabeater seal teeth. Wild, man. Nature is nuts.


End file.
